Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has provided a positive update on Pau Torres as he continues his recovery from injury and closes in on a return.
The 28-year-old suffered a broken metatarsal at the end of December and has been sidelined since, with Villa undoubtedly missing his presence in the side given his influence in both phases of the game.
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While Tyrone Mings has fortunately returned from his own injury problems to fill that void, there’s no denying that we’ve struggled without Torres, particularly with the Spanish international’s composure and technical ability in possession making a key difference in how we build our play out from the back.
With other key players making progress in their own respective recoveries from injury, Emery has also now provided a positive update on his centre-half, who will hopefully be available and in contention within the next three weeks or so.
“He is close,” Emery said, as quoted by BirminghamLive. “He is not working with the team. He is still working alone. But the time we planned him to start working with the team is more or less the next week. To be available to play maybe two weeks or three weeks, I don’t know more or less.”
Torres has made 24 appearances so far this season and has been a mainstay in the Villa starting line-up since he arrived from Villarreal in 2023, and although he’ll remain sidelined for our upcoming games against Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Cardiff City, Club Brugge and Brentford, he’ll hope to be back in the fold at the start of April when we travel to Brighton in the Premier League.
It looks set to be a critical run-in for Villa as we aim to secure European football for next season and keep our hopes of winning silverware this year alive in both the Champions League and FA Cup, and if Torres is able to play a pivotal role in that run from April onwards, it will hopefully prove to be a decisive catalyst in our campaign.
In the more immediate future, it’s hoped that Ezri Konsa is able to return to face Chelsea this weekend with loanee Axel Disasi ineligible to face his parent club, but for Emery, shoring up our porous defence remains one of his priorities as we have to find solutions at the back to help us achieve our goals.
